It All Comes Out in the Wash

As most people out there are well aware, parents of younger children perhaps even more acutely so, there are some days when free time abounds.  You make every green light.  Your carry out order is ready faster than usual.  You head down to the laundry room to find that the clothes you were going to throw in the wash have already been cleaned and your kids come home and say they were assigned no homework.


On such days, one gets to enjoy the extra time to relax.  The book that's been sitting on the nightstand is cracked open.  That last episode of your show gets watched.  You finally get passed that level or maybe you just take a nice long nap.


 There are days when the world makes you its b----.  You wake up late to take the kids to school.  The errands you had to run take longer than they should have because of the two cars that seem to be purposely driving at exactly identical speeds right alongside one another.  You don't realize you are in over your head on the do-it-yourself project you undertook until nearly every piece of your driver's side door is laid out on the street and you realize you have no clue how to put it back together again.  That giant television you picked up from your in-laws' house was much harder into your garage than you anticipated it would be (because your age is more of a factor than you anticipated it would be).  The tent you promised you would set up for your sons is found to have broken poles and you still have to get ready for the baseball game you're coaching.


But here's something you might not know, though parents of young children may figure it out sooner: It works out.  It always seems to anyway.  Somehow all the stuff you needed to do gets done and you still end up spending time with the people you love.  And the win for your pee wee team ends up as the icing on the cake.


When you lie down in bed that night, you will definitely be exhausted and you will probably be sore from all the running around, but there will be that sense of accomplishment.  And when you wake the next morning, you will feel like a million bucks.


You will smell like humid gym locker because you completely forgot to shower in your exhaustion at the end of the previous day, but you'll feel like a million bucks.